MoveOn.org says MSNBC won't run its Target ad

MoveOn.org unveiled an ad earlier this week going after Target for helping to pay for TV ads backing political candidates. The liberal group said Thursday that MSNBC has rejected its ad, which you can watch below, because it's a direct attack on an individual business, an apparent violation of NBC policy. (Of course it's not hard to surmise why MSNBC would want to avoid running an ad attacking an existing or potential client.)

Still no word from MSNBC on its view, but MoveOn.org says the network is being hypocritical.

"According to MSNBC and GE it is alright for corporations, like Target, to attack candidates and buy elections, but it is not OK for citizen organizations, like MoveOn, to fight back," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, in a statement. He added, "Target Corporation decided to use the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision to try to buy the Minnesota Governor's election and now GE and MSNBC are protecting them from deserved consumer backlash."

You can count on my support Target. I have already been in several times this week. This company has the freedom to donate to whom they choose. And I have a greater respect for MSNBC after this for rejecting this group's hate ad. I love the idea of early Christmas shopping. I think I will try that.

MSNBC is on the verge of extinction so it is perfectly understandable that they would reject this ad and moveon.org does not really care because the WP and other news outlets will play the ad free of charge because MSNBC made this news. Moveon.orgy knows how to get free advertising and may have begged MSNBC to reject the ad, (everyone knows what a subversive group moveon is). George Soros must be running low on his ill-gotten gains.

Yeah all the networks have double standards regarding the "public interest." It’s called censorship. A common practice, little noticed by media. Surprise, surprise, surprise. One famous incident: Ed Sullivan change the lyrics to a Jim Morris song, and when Morris went ahead and did it his way Sullivan banned him from every appearing on television again. And then there are George Carlin and the Smothers Brothers , banned in the 1960’s but now part of history about how free thought and expressing are viewed as “dangerous” by corporations who think they know what’s best for the rest of us, so long as we keep buying products, goods and services they shill for. Look at all the pharmaceuticals that promote products of questionable value if not harmful to physical and mental and the longstanding conspiracy to keep brand name prescription drugs from being sold generically once patent rights expire. Do truth in lending laws still apply? Do “independent investigative reporting” even exists anymore in electronic media? Not even disclaimers for damages done by huckster infomercials, pushing products and information that are downright lies and misleading folks to spend money they don't have. For example "make million $ in real estate using free government money." Aren't the "airways" still under public ownership? US? We, the People? Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC and the rest of the usual suspects are licensed by the Feds, licenses that are periodically up for renewal. Continuation can be challenged by citizens if indications are that the NBC, and rest of the gang have been abusing their privileges and obligations as license holders, violating policy and law overseen by FCC and FTC, etc. T'would be interesting if say a Tea Party or Moveon.org would show up at the secret license renewal hearings to vent their collective spleens about network irregularities. Locally owned network stations and affiliates are supposed to make public announcements when and where such hearings are to be held. Or at least the used to. All licenses holders have to maintain a "complaint file" that is available to the public upon request, or if someone shows up at headquarters asking for access to the files. Or it used to be BB&N. A fantasy would be Ted Turner returning from retirement and cooking buffalo burgers to support such challenges, buying us a Network or two if The Gang of Four and their surrogates are found guilty and their licenses come up for open and competitive bids.

How sad that so many WaPo readers jump up and down in support of Target, insisting they will shop there and spend their money there and thumb their noses at MoveOn and its members and supporters. I wonder if these people ever think, or even have the brains to think for themselves. It wouldn't surprise me to see the same IDs attached to letters complaining about job losses and the collapsing economy and the unfairness of Wall Street bailouts while they are barely keeping their heads above water.

Wake up, America. There's a reason for those job losses, and the fact that businesses aren't hiring, and that crap is so cheap at Target (and Wal-Mart): it is that American business has spent 30 years in collusion with the Republican party working to destroy unions (which protected jobs and built the American middle class from 1940-1980); to close down domestic manufacturing in favor of cheaper labor costs overseas (resulting in the loss of all those jobs you whine about not having); dumbing down the education system so ignorant working people will not understand basic economics, the fundamentals of civics and American history, or even plain logic.

As a result, you're so easily distracted by fear (of Muslims building a community center in New York; of health care reform that will benefit your own famlies; of improved education and roads and bridges and railway that are paid for with the stimulus money; and of anything else the right wing media machine throws up in the air like red meat to a dog) that you don't even get that when you support the right-wing Republican party you are killing your own family's future! People with brains laugh at you for voting against your own interest, time after time after time. And reading your posts here explains why you do so: you haven't the intellectual capacity to be qualified to vote.

I am shocked that corporate media is protecting corporate America. This is just a taste of what it will be like when corporations simply contol everything. Corporate democracy is what is ahead, to bad it is such a counterdiction.

Oh yeah Target is such a swell place. They laid off my daughter after she had her daughter by c-section and couldn't return to work soon enough, and even though they said she could be rehired when she was recovered, they lied even though she had excellent reviews. Then they started cutting her husband's hours. He's now working three jobs and they are barely surviving.

This is a classic case of moveon.org accusing someone else of the underhanded tactics that they have been using since their origination. Moveon.org is a corrupt group that attempts to buy elections. They lie, cheat and steal--there should be no place in the political world for these bums! The main problem with our political system is the Political Party. Both the Democrats and Republicans including their respective administrations are corrupt beyond belief. They don't listen to anyone who doesn't have money to slip under the table and into their bank accounts. This why the public opinion of the congress is 11% approval.

Gee, I wonder if BP is going to give Obama another million bucks for his campaign chest this year. Maybe they will simply donate to moveon.org, because one can't expect George Soros to pay for everything.

OldUncleTom - Wrong on both points. MSNBC, FOX, WB, CBS, ABC are all owned by publicly-traded corporations. They can lose their licenses by actions of the FCC, FTC, etc. This is because they have been publicly subsidized since pre-1934. They are also subject to SEC, FEC, and various state laws to provide information for the public good.

They do not own their broadcast channels. They are owned by the Public in the US. One way to emphasize this will be to put an annual license fee based on ad sales on each station and network to fund theCPB/ PBS/NPR/Voice of America entities. This would also decrease the massive politicization of the that tainted all departments during the previous administration.

Target is in the business of making money. It should do every legal, cost-effective thing it can to make as much money as it can. If gays want Target to give money to politicians friendly to them, they need to get gay-friendly politicians to be business-friendly, too.

Extending equal rights to gay employees and their partners is only possibly as long as Target HAS employees - and if gays want more job opportunities with equal rights for their partners, stop making common cause with MoveOn, which is as market-friendly as the Politburo, and back candidates who want everyone to succeed on their own efforts and be as rich as Croesus.

"You can count on my support Target. I have already been in several times this week. This company has the freedom to donate to whom they choose. And I have a greater respect for MSNBC after this for rejecting this group's hate ad. I love the idea of early Christmas shopping. I think I will try that"

I will be spending a lot on money at Target myself, will probably vacation in Arizona as well...

Moveon.org is no more a citizens group than Target is. Moveon.org is a company dedicated to changing politics to one view.

If I could reform politics I would not allow corporation to spend on politics nor would I allow political groups like move on to exist. Move does nothing to take in money to spend it to influence votes.

"...I wonder if these people ever think, or even have the brains to think for themselves"...
Posted by: adreed |
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Therein lies the problem. People are thinking for themselves and are fed up with the attempts of the progressive bullies to force their agenda on the American public.

Once again we have a large number of posts from individuals who "know not of which they speak"!

In an ideal world people would make certain they know what they're going to be talking about before they open their mouths. Obviously it is not fashionable to learn what is going on before spewing forth with name-calling, etc.

TARGET SCREWED UP! The CEO of Target Corp. issued an apology to their employees for not having properly researched the situation before donating.

Which would you rather have: Target donating profits to political candidates of their choice; or lower prices in Target stores because they don't need to finance political ad's?

Corporations are like political candidates, you don't have to support them - if you don't like what they're doing...don't do business with them. It's the American Way!!

MoveOn.org are also those geniuses that ran that "General Betray Us" ad about General Petraeus, whose "surge" strategy was a resounding success and was later adopted by President Obama for Afghanistan. How did MoveOn.org respond to President Obama nominating General Petraeus? Why, they heroically removed all references to their former advertisements attacking him from their website:

Please refrain from lumping all gays and lesbians together. I don't agree at all with MoveOn's stance. Target made a mistake. Otherwise, they've had an excellent track record on equal rights regarding LGBT emloyment issues in recent years. MoveOn needs to spend their energy on something worth fighting about.

at first I was going to go to Target to support them since anyone MOVEon is against has to be good. But then I read further and found out that Target actually has a historically excellent record of supporting gays, going so far in my view as to actually give them special rights. So now I don't know where to shop. Walmart? They do sell fat free lattes there with a lemon twist, right?

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